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rvrinehart · 10-22-2013, 10:42 AM

I drive my 2002 American Eagle motorhome about 4,000 to 5,000 miles per year. In 2011 at 37,000 miles the engine started running rough. The Cummins repair shop in Portland discovered a valve seat had fallen out and rattled around in the #5 cylinder doing extensive damage. $10,000 later I was on my way. 500 miles later I had to be towed into Yakima, WA. They replaced some push tubes (pushrods) that I assume had been incorrectly installed in Portland, OR. Two years later, with 47,000 miles on the engine it cratered again. The Kenworth dealer in Salina, UT discovered a broken Jake brake and the #6 cylinder was badly damaged. That is going to be another $10,000 repair.

I realize it is out of the 5 year warrantee period but having problems at 37,000 and 47,000 miles is certainly not what we expect from our diesels. Cummins warrantee people are unwilling to help. Does anyone have any suggestions? Or should I just pay the bill and hope I don't continue having problems.

Thanks for any ideas.

GreaTOne65 · 10-22-2013, 06:20 PM

Wow! That's tough. I think they could do something to minimize the cost.

rezman · 10-22-2013, 07:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GreaTOne65

Wow! That's tough. I think they could do something to minimize the cost.

I started to reply to this twice, but its a tough series of events. You can't expect Cummins to pay anything on an engine thats over 10 years old. The original repairing location probably had a 3 to 6 month warranty on their work. The second repair should have been picked up as a workmanship repair, not sure who paid for that repair. So in my opionion no one will be stepping up to help sorry to say.

Would like more details on the Jake failure mentioned...wondering if this could be root cause of all your issues...

Extended warranties could be an option...

Smitty77 · 10-23-2013, 01:26 PM

Wow! And Ouch! And I feel your $$ pain. Sorry for this sequence.

I wonder if you sent the SN to Cummins and ask them for a review if it might not yield something? Sure it is way out of warrant, and yes - stuff (should be 4 letter word, so I'll say stuf) happens. Possible the first shops repair missed something.

This was the CAPS era engine, and pre ULSD changeover. Not that I expect added lubricant to help with what you reported, I was wondering if you were a user of any of the additives with extra lubrication?

I too would be interested if you learn any more on the JAKE. Our 2004 coach, had a July of 2003 ISL270 CAPS engine. During review of the low engine, under 13K miles, pre purchase inspection. Cummis Cal Pacific had to go into the valve cover and adjust some mechanical settings on the JAKE for this engine. Seems a few from that era had come out of the factory with the High part of the JAKE closing the last thee cylinders valves not set properly. ( As I test drove, I could detect no difference between Low and High positions, thus my insistence that the JAKE be looked over.).

Now at a young 26K miles, JAKE High can be felt.

Best of luck, again sorry for the $$ hit. And as far as Extended Warranty - the real question is if you would have had one that would have covered the problems you are seeing - soo many of them seem to have the 'get out of $$ paying slant'. And a few have clauses that hey can refund you the pro-rated remaining amount of the EW instead of doing a repair... kind of defeats the purpose. (And yes, some EW companies are stand up, but they also charge much more to start with....).

Please keep us in the loop on what you find out,
Smitty